Hundreds of San Francisco State University students angrily demanded Thursday that campus leaders not only shield the university’s College of Ethnic Studies from threatened cuts, but that they also expand offerings at the one-of-a-kind program.

So loud and intent were the students who packed into a campus auditorium that they all but ignored school President Les Wong’s announcement that he will find $200,000 this year to eliminate most of the college’s $245,000 shortfall and — for now — halt cuts to graduate-level classes, faculty research, work-study funding, substitute instructors for faculty on sabbatical and other programs.

Wong later told The Chronicle that he also will come up with $200,000 for next year, but acknowledged that it may not be enough.

Ken Monteiro, dean of the College of Ethnic Studies, attended the raucous meeting and called Wong’s message “heartening.” But he said he wasn’t sure what it will mean for the program.

‘Shame on you guys’

Despite Wong’s hopeful news, he was shouted off the stage by students urging him to “wrap it up.”

“Shame on you guys for putting us in this situation,” student Oscar Peña yelled from the podium at Wong, Provost Sue Rosser and other administrators seated at the front of the auditorium.

San Francisco State created the College of Ethnic Studies in 1969 in reaction to student demands that the university offer more than European cultural and history programs. The college remains unique in the nation, with departments focusing on Asian American, American Indian, Latino and Africana curricula, and on race itself. Other U.S. universities offer courses or majors in some of those areas, but San Francisco State is the only one to group them under one college.

Students in the college describe it as revelatory: a place where people of color discover their histories, and themselves in the process.

Turned life around

“I grew up in gangs,” Peña told the crowd Thursday. “I sold dope. I was in a lifestyle you would not even imagine. By going to school, I was able to turn my life around. Why I chose Latino and Latina studies is because it’s imperative to understand not just my history, but social justice issues in this country.”

The budget battle over the College of Ethnic Studies led campus officials and faculty to accuse one another of fiscal mismanagement — in part because neither side could agree on how much money was coming or going.

On Thursday, campus officials said they gave $3.6 million to the college this year — nearly $2 million less than the College of Education received, even though the College of Ethnic Studies has 30 percent more students.

Rainy-day fund

This year’s allocation to the College of Ethnic Studies was slightly higher than in recent years. But to makes ends meet, the college has always needed, and received, extra money. It got nearly $244,000 last year from a campus rainy-day fund.

The dispute began this week when Wong said the College of Ethnic Studies would have to find a way to live without the extra money. The rainy-day fund intended for use by the campus’ six colleges has been depleted, in part “to cover Ethnic Studies overspending,” said campus spokesman Jonathan Morales.

He said the fund, which stood at $7.4 million in 2011, is now gone.

The College of Ethnic Studies “has been asked to adapt to new budgetary discipline moving forward,” Wong said in a letter to the campus Tuesday. He said the college’s basic budget would not be cut, but that “adapting to new budgetary guidelines can come with challenges.” He listed no specifics.

Money woes

Wong told The Chronicle that San Francisco State is having financial problems because of declining enrollment and because the California State University system isn’t giving it enough money. The campus is projecting a $2 million structural deficit this year.

But on Thursday, students had no interest in such details.

“We don’t care!” they shouted at Rosser, the school provost, when she took the podium and talked about how the state’s recession affected the campus six years ago.

When Ron Cortez, vice president of finance, stood up to say the campus’ deficit had improved from $7.5 million a few years ago, he was booed off the stage.

“You are still trying to divide and silence us so you can push your white-centric curriculum,” one student yelled, to applause and cheers.

“This is not an overspending problem” by the College of Ethnic Studies, said Shannon Deloso, 21, an Asian American studies major. “It is an underfunding problem. There is a long history of people of color being told we don’t know how to manage our affairs.”

Demands deadline

Students presented the administrators with a long list of demands to expand the college rather than shrink it. Wong agreed to address the concerns by their deadline of 5 p.m. Monday, which the students noted is the last day of Black History Month.

As the two-hour confrontation ended, the students ushered the administrators out the door chanting, “Shame! Shame!”

Raymond Jegillos, 20, a molecular biology student carrying a banner in solidarity with Ethnic Studies students, was among hundreds of people who later converged on the central campus for a rally. Asked for his reaction to Wong’s promise of $200,000 this year and next, Jegillos said, “He’d better follow through.”